DL employees share biggest profit sharing

[WorldTraveler]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-employees-earn-372-million-163600977.html

For 2012: $372 million or 6.67% of each employee's pay.

Over 3 years: $949 million which is probably the largest string of profit sharing in the history of the airline industry.

Add in monthly operational rewards and the total climbs by $91M for 2012.

Congrats to all DL employees for a job well done.

Enjoy your well-deserved rewards!

 

[FWAAA]

That is impressive. And the union leaders over at AA have bargained away all profit sharing in their MOUs. Sad. The combined airline may never report Delta-sized profits, but if it does, the employees won't be getting 15%.

 

[WorldTraveler]

to be fair, this is the last year of 15% profit sharing since both non and non-pilot workgroups have increased base pay but lower profit sharing (still 10% though).
However, DL is still forecasting $1.5-$2B profits for 2013 and more of the revenue will be generated by mainline employees instead of regional partners, so there still should be hefty profit sharing checks in years to come.

 

[FWAAA]

Wow. So DL employees gave up a third of their future profit sharing? I guess they can hope that the profits get much larger in the future so that their 10% will still be big.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Reducing profit sharing in exchange for increased based pay was part of the contract; DL said they polled non-contract workers and the move was supported by them as well.

We'll see how big next year's profit sharing checks are as well as the increase in total compensation and then know if it was a good deal.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Good news for my delta honorable freinds. It beats what AA is going through right now.

 

[WorldTraveler]

.... and it is a tribute to all of them for successfully concluding the largest merger in US airline history at the time, setting a very high standard for those who would come behind on how well an airline should be run, and transforming Delta into the most profitable airline in the history of aviation in the United States.

 

[hula-flyguy]

Congratulations DL employees! Well done!

 

[2BlacknBlue]

Since we are doing so well, where's that 5th week of vacation? My 15 years are no less important than the next guys.

 

[Kev3188]

Blasphemer!

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

I am curious as to what my all in pay rate would be as a 26 year Lead Technician working day shift line maintenance 4/10 with Sun/Mon/Tue RDO with A&P/FCC, and what my vacation benefit would be.

We had all health care premiums company paid (as of our last AMFA contract) and I would have had 6 weeks vacation, full sick pay, and OJI pay.

Our pension multiplier was $85/month per year of service.

It was a truly superior employment experience.

 

[Kev3188]

• Base Rate: $6183.36
• Lead Override: $375
• Lic. Prem (2 licences max): $693.32
• Line Pay: $130.00
• Full sick pay: Doesn't exist (at least in the form you remember)
• OJI pay: Doesn't exist
• Vacation: No sixth week for you. The good news is that assuming I can still add, you would've had enough time to be grandfathered in for the 5th week...
• Company paid medical: Ha!
• Pension: Frozen. 401k match is nice, though.

 

[WorldTraveler]

yep, airline salaries and benefits in the regulated era were indeed outstanding and a lot of companies were able to retain those benefits until their BKs post 9/11.

and your profit sharing in the last year of that contract was ?

DL employees also had fully paid medical insurance until 2002 or so. The percentage of employees in the US workforce w/ that benefit would be only those at the very top of the heap today.

I'd also be interested in seeing the comparison for that "same employee" at other US legacy carriers today, including profit sharing, of course.

K,
thanks for the quick retrieval of the data above!

 

[WNMECH]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-employees-earn-372-million-163600977.html


Over 3 years: $949 million which is probably the largest string of profit sharing in the history of the airline industry.

Well not exactly.
How about 39 consecutive years.

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/flashback-fridays-little-known-profitsharing-factoids

And don't forget who started it all.

Southwest Airlines adopted the first profitsharing plan in the U.S. airline industry in 1973.

 

[WorldTraveler]

you are absolutely right, WNMech. My limiting focus on legacy carriers failed to leave room for what WN accomplished.

WN was created out of the mindset that if you treat employees well, they would treat your customers well.

WN backed up the concept with profit sharing, as you noted, and they have been consistently profitable.

The profit sharing part of WN's HR formula may have been new but there were other airlines who recognized the value of treating their employees well so that they could treat their customers well. Pre-deregulation, Delta was recognized as having some of the best customer service in the industry. There weren't all of the metrics then that there are today but DL held the title of fewest customer complaints with the DOT for many, many years, something WN has been able to claim more recently.


I indeed do recognize what WN has accomplished... the world is indeed big enough for plenty of companies to succeed.

BTW, DL generated half of the US airline industry's profits despite being substantially less than half of the industry.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11858509/1/delta-gains-from-new-york-growth-refinery-buy.html?puc=CNNMONEY&cm_ven=CNNMONEY

DL reported its RASM growth which at 5% is ahead of the other carriers who have reported.

DL also is expecting a profit in the 1st quarter... which hasn't happened at DL since before 9/11.
Notably, WN was next in line.

Finally, even though DL's refinery in Penn. is just now beginning to operate at full capacity, it is expected to break even this quarter and generate a profit in the June quarter as large as the loss in the first quarter it operated.

DAL stock is trading near 52 week highs and DAL continues to have the highest market cap among US airlines.